The present invention relates to a method of housing animals and handling their droppings whereby a maximum of the protein therein is preserved in a form acceptable for recycling as an animal food.
Some animals and particularly domestic fowl, as for example, chickens, can be fed a high protein diet for the purpose of causing the animal to speed up the process of converting the food to animal protein in the form of either body weight, eggs, milk, etc. In the case of egg producing chickens, for example, the chickens are fed a ration of at least approximately 18 percent protein to stimulate and maintain egg production at a maximum. The digestive tract of the chicken cannot remove all of the protein from the food, and approximately half of the protein fed to the chicken is excreted in the droppings. In the digestive tract, the food is worked upon by a combination of chemicals, enzymes, and bacteria which convert some of the protein into a liquid form capable of passing through the membranes of the digestive tract to be absorbed by the blood of the chicken. As in all chemical processes, a driving force must exist across a membrane in order to cause molecules to migrate through the membrane; and in the present instance, the driving force is provided by a higher concentration of protein in the digestive tract than exists in the blood stream of the chicken. The digestive tract therefore must carry a higher protein level than the level of protein in the blood of the animal. The excrement from the digestive tract therefore carries a particular concentration of digested protein in the absorbable liquid form. In addition, the excrement from the digestive tract will carry protein in solid undigested form. The result is that the droppings of all chickens and all other animals contain a sizable percentage of the protein that was fed to the animal.
The excrement, or droppings, are warm and moist, and are an ideal culture for all kinds of bacteria which immediately start decomposition of the remaining protein in the droppings after leaving the body of the animal. Some bacteria exists in the digestive tract of the animal and are in the droppings when excreted. Such bacteria are usually of a beneficial kind. Other bacteria are carried in the air, and in stale droppings, and such bacteria are usually the major source of putrifaction of the protein in the droppings.
An object of the present invention is the provision of a new and improved method of housing animals and handling their droppings, so that putrifaction of the protein in the droppings is substantially prevented so that the droppings can be used as a food supplement for recycling with other protein in the food for the animals.
Another object of the invention is the provision of new and improved apparatus for collecting and processing animal droppings which will preserve a maximum amount of the protein in the droppings.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates from the following description of the preferred embodiments which are described with reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification.